The present invention relates to a bilirubin denaturating apparatus and a bilirubin dialyzer used for blood treatment of a patient suffering from liver dysfunction whose function of converting fat-soluble bilirubin into water-soluble bilirubin is lowered due to a malfunction or a function failure of the liver.
Bilirubin which is generated by the decomposition of hemoglobin in erythrocyte in a living body usually is present in a form of fat-soluble bilirubin. This fat-soluble bilirubin is converted into water-soluble bilirubin in a liver. Further, the water-soluble bilirubin is strained from blood as a waste product in a kidney and is discharged to the outside of the living body.
Accordingly, when a malfunction or a function failure of a liver occurs, the liver cannot convert fat-soluble bilirubin into water-soluble bilirubin and hence, fat-soluble bilirubin is accumulated in the inside of the living body and so-called symptoms of jaundice appear. Accordingly, a cure or a treatment for converting fat-soluble biliru bin into water-soluble bilirubin becomes necessary.
It has been known that fat-soluble bilirubin is converted into water-soluble bilirubin by radiating green light having a wavelength of 450 nm to 530 nm to fat-soluble bilirubin. In view of the above, there has been proposed a device which radiates green light to a patient suffering from liver dysfunction whose function of converting fat-soluble bilirubin into water-soluble bilirubin is lowered using a light source which can radiate green light thus converting fat-soluble bilirubin in blood into water-soluble bilirubin with green light which permeates a skin (see, patent document 1, for example).
However, since a body surface area per weight is small in the case of an adult, the conversion efficiency from fat-soluble bilirubin into water-soluble bilirubin with the radiation of green light is extremely low. In this manner, the method disclosed in patent document 1 is not a realistic bilirubin reducing method.
In view of the above, currently, a blood plasma exchange method which reduces the bilirubin concentration by exchanging plasma in blood or a bilirubin absorption method which reduces the bilirubin concentration by absorbing and removing bilirubin using a bilirubin absorption column has been put into practice. Further, as another method, there has been also proposed a method which performs the conversion of fat-soluble bilirubin into water-soluble bilirubin by circulating blood such that a portion of blood is extracted from a patient suffering from liver dysfunction, green light is directly radiated to the blood and, thereafter, the blood is made to return to the inside of a living body (see patent document 2, for example).    Patent document 1: JP-A-09-038221    Patent document 2: JP-A-2004-358243